Abstract
BACKGROUND: Young adults, especially men, are among those least likely to consult healthcare professionals when mentally distressed or suicidal. AIMS: To investigate the help-seeking behaviours of mentally distressed young adults. Design of study: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Bristol and surrounding areas, including inner-city, suburban and urban locations. METHOD: A questionnaire was sent to a sample of 3004 young adults aged 16-24 years. This assessed probable mental disorder (using the 12-item general health questionnaire [GHQ-12]), suicidal thoughts (GHQ-28 suicide subscale), and help-seeking behaviours. RESULTS: Most responders who were assessed as having probable mental disorders (GHQ "cases") had not sought help. Help seeking was more common in female GHQ cases than male cases (34.8% and 21.8%,respectively; P = 0.003) and women with suicidal thoughts more commonly sought help than men with suicidal thoughts (41.6% and 30.9%, respectively; P = 0.15). Small proportions of male and female GHQ cases (7.5% and 8.9%, respectively; P = 0.6), and less than one in five responders with suicidal thoughts, had consulted a general practitioner. In more female than male cases, help was sought from family and friends (30.7% and 18.4%, respectively; P = 0.004). GHQ score was the strongest predictor of help seeking. Men had a higher threshold of severity at which they would seek help than women. Recent experience of suicidal thoughts appeared to be a stronger predictor of formal help seeking in mentally distressed women than mentally distressed men. CONCLUSION: Distressed young adults are reluctant to seek help. Men are particularly unlikely to do so unless severely distressed and tend not to seek lay support. Sex differences in help seeking may be important in understanding the high suicide rate for men.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (44.0 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Albizu-Garcia C. E., Alegría M., Freeman D., Vera M. Gender and health services use for a mental health problem. Soc Sci Med. 2001 Oct;53(7):865–878. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00380-4. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Bebbington P. E., Meltzer H., Brugha T. S., Farrell M., Jenkins R., Ceresa C., Lewis G. Unequal access and unmet need: neurotic disorders and the use of primary care services. Psychol Med. 2000 Nov;30(6):1359–1367. doi: 10.1017/s0033291799002950. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Bland R. C., Newman S. C., Orn H. Help-seeking for psychiatric disorders. Can J Psychiatry. 1997 Nov;42(9):935–942. doi: 10.1177/070674379704200904. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Broadhead W. E., Gehlbach S. H., de Gruy F. V., Kaplan B. H. The Duke-UNC Functional Social Support Questionnaire. Measurement of social support in family medicine patients. Med Care. 1988 Jul;26(7):709–723. doi: 10.1097/00005650-198807000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Cottler L. B., Zipp J. F., Robins L. N., Spitznagel E. L. Difficult-to-recruit respondents and their effect on prevalence estimates in an epidemiologic survey. Am J Epidemiol. 1987 Feb;125(2):329–339. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114534. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Foster T., Gillespie K., McClelland R. Mental disorders and suicide in Northern Ireland. Br J Psychiatry. 1997 May;170:447–452. doi: 10.1192/bjp.170.5.447. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gasquet I., Chavance M., Ledoux S., Choquet M. Psychosocial factors associated with help-seeking behavior among depressive adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1997 Sep;6(3):151–159. doi: 10.1007/BF00538987. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gunnell D., Frankel S. Prevention of suicide: aspirations and evidence. BMJ. 1994 May 7;308(6938):1227–1233. doi: 10.1136/bmj.308.6938.1227. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Houston K., Hawton K., Shepperd R. Suicide in young people aged 15-24: a psychological autopsy study. J Affect Disord. 2001 Mar;63(1-3):159–170. doi: 10.1016/s0165-0327(00)00175-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Kessler R. C., Brown R. L., Broman C. L. Sex differences in psychiatric help-seeking: evidence from four large-scale surveys. J Health Soc Behav. 1981 Mar;22(1):49–64. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lewis G., Pelosi A. J., Araya R., Dunn G. Measuring psychiatric disorder in the community: a standardized assessment for use by lay interviewers. Psychol Med. 1992 May;22(2):465–486. doi: 10.1017/s0033291700030415. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- O'Neil M. K., Lancee W. J., Freeman S. J. Help-seeking behaviour of depressed students. Soc Sci Med. 1984;18(6):511–514. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(84)90009-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Pope D., Croft P. Surveys using general practice registers: who are the non-responders? J Public Health Med. 1996 Mar;18(1):6–12. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.pubmed.a024464. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rickwood D. J., Braithwaite V. A. Social-psychological factors affecting help-seeking for emotional problems. Soc Sci Med. 1994 Aug;39(4):563–572. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(94)90099-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rickwood D., d'Espaignet E. T. Psychological distress among older adolescents and young adults in Australia. Aust N Z J Public Health. 1996 Feb;20(1):83–86. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-842x.1996.tb01342.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Turnbull J. C., Kersten P., Habib M., McLellan L., Mullee M. A., George S. Validation of the Frenchay Activities Index in a general population aged 16 years and older. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2000 Aug;81(8):1034–1038. doi: 10.1053/apmr.2000.7162. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Vassilas C. A., Morgan H. G. General practitioners' contact with victims of suicide. BMJ. 1993 Jul 31;307(6899):300–301. doi: 10.1136/bmj.307.6899.300. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]